Crossing the border with Blue Jays beat reporter Jordan Bastian.

Game 2: Detroit at Toronto pregame

Due to some past problems here at the Dome, the Rogers Centre’s alcohol liscense has been revoked for tonight’s game. So no booze Bird fans. That, combined with the usual drop-off between Opening Day and Game No. 2 attendance, should make for a sparse crowd tonight.

The fans weren’t the only ones affected by the beer issue today, either.

“They took it all out of the clubhouse,” Gaston said. “I haven’t opened my fridge yet to see if there’s any in there.”

After Monday’s 12-run, 15-hit outburst from his lineup, Gaston opted to stick with the same starting nine. I say if Travis Snider keeps swinging like he did this spring and how he hit last night it’ll be tough to keep him in that ninth hole.

I thought the Jays were lucky to win that one. Had Leyland left Jackson in there for the rest of the inning they would have likely lost but regardless i’m obviously happy they got the win. It’s too bad about Ryan blowing the save on his first opportunity, that wont exactly give me confidence that the job will get done when he comes in. I did notice that he topped off at 89 MPH on the Detroit broadcast. Finally, nice to see that Rolen is showing some pop in his first 2 games.

Enigma, I don’t think I’d get excited about Ryan’s velocity yet, that ball he threw to Inge was middle center with no movement and Inge hammered it. Watching Ryan pitch tonight actually caused me more concern about him than what we’ve heard.
I think he might be resorting to a 4 seamer on occasion to get his velocity back up, BUT it loses movement seen before on his fastball. I might be wrong about that, but that pitch to Inge was flat, straight and slow. Inge was licking his chops waiting to clobber it. lol
I still think he should be at Dunedin working it out because I doubt Cito is going to keep running him out there to blow saves, particulary when we pay him 10 mill. a year for the privilege.
You are right, we were lucky to win this one, maybe it’s the year for The Jays to get the breaks. Good to have Hill back and nice to see Rolen off to a good start.

I agree completely on your assessment of Ryan. You could tell during his warm-up that he couldn’t get the ball down. He used to rely on his movement and location. If you take that away from him, there are THOUSANDS of pitchers that can throw straight 90mph fastballs down the middle of plate who will play for the league minimum.

An interesting tidbit about Thursday’s game from the Canadian Press as reported on Sportsnet.com

TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays made Ricky Romero the sixth overall pick in 2005, while Rick Porcello was selected 27th overall by the Detroit Tigers in 2007.

On Thursday, the two pitchers will become the first pair of first-rounders to make their big-league debuts against one another, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. It’s a small and obscure piece of baseball history, but a piece of baseball history nonetheless.

“That’s actually pretty cool,” said Romero, a 24-year-old lefty from Los Angeles. “Two young up-and-coming guys making their debut, should be pretty fun. It’s exciting for me, I’m sure he’s excited too. I have my whole family here, it’s obviously going to be a good experience, a day you’re never going to forget.”

Added Porcello, a 20-year-old righty from Morristown, N.J.: “I don’t think about it too much, I’ve got my hands full with trying to get some hitters out. But it’s kind of cool that’s the first time it’s going to happen.”

It’s always hard to pinpoint the moment a young pitcher arrives; last night could be Purcey’s.
When Purcey started the 7th inning he’d only given up 1 run on 3 hits and in fairness that run could have been saved if Hill had applied a different tag on Inge’s slide into 2nd base in the 3rd inning. The replay showed Inge extending his arms around either side of Hill’s glove to be safe.
Purcey’s “moment” came in the 7th when Detroit had already scored and had runners on 2nd and 3rd with only 1 out. Cito called for an intentional walk to Inge and Purcey promptly soft tossed his first pitch over Barajas’s head to the backstop.
Barajas recoved the ball and quickly tossed it to Purcey so the runner on 3rd couldn’t score, and Purcey, seeing the runner on 2nd out of place tried to gun him down by throwing it 2 feet over Scutaro’s head into center field. The runner on 3rd scored and I’m sure Purcey was looking for a big hole to dive into to cover his embarassment.
But he didn’t do that, what he did was strike out Inge, get Thames out and retire the side with no more damage.

As the year goes on, this game will only show up as a no decision for David Purcey-reminding all of us the win loss record of a pitcher isn’t the best way to gage how effective a starter is-it’s how many quality starts they give us.
Purcey kept us in the game long enough for Camp to do his job and the hitters deliver the runs, a quality start for sure.
Time will tell whether this was Purey’s arrival moment or not, but if it wasn’t it certainly went a long way to getting him there. I for one hope it was.

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